CDC: Go slow on dropping mask mandate
Not so fast, governors! Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that the public health agency does not support lifting COVID-fighting restrictions and mask rules even as the nation’s governors race to lift the mandates in their states.
Walensky (photo) pointedly avoided criticizing the push by governors to relax rules, but she noted that COVID caseloads, hospitalizations and deaths remain at punishingly high levels.
“Our hospitalizations are still high, Our death rates are still high,” Walensky said. “As we are encouraged by the current trends, we are not there yet.”
The top public health officials at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing explained why the CDC position is now different from that of so many governors, including staunch allies of President Biden.
“We’ve always said that these decisions would have to be made at a local level,” said Walensky, praising some governors for phasing out mask rules instead of eliminating them. “I’m encouraged that cases are dropping dramatically and hospitalizations are dropping dramatically.”
The CDC director avoided questions as to which metrics might be used to gauge when the CDC could recommend easing the rules for masking in indoor public places or schools.
The debate comes as cases continue to rapidly decline as the nation moves out of the surge caused by the supercontagious omicron variant of COVID.
In many states, cases are down nearly 90% from their recent omicron-driven highs and hospitalizations are also dropping. The seven-day average death rate from COVID, which lags behind other trends, remains roughly steady at a shocking 2,500.
Public health officials are reluctant to recommend easing the restrictions because they have seen how quickly the trends can reverse, especially if a new variant appears. The U.S. is especially vulnerable to such shifts because it has many people who refuse to get vaccinated, leaving them and their communities exposed to new surges.